ETH Zurich : Computer Science : Pervasive Computing : Distributed Systems : Research : LOP - Location Oriented Programming

LOP - Location Oriented Programming

A Research Project of the Distributed Systems Group

Location has undeniably become a hot topic in the consumer market, with sales of mobile navigation systems skyrocketing in 2007. Around the simple service of positioning, an entire industry for Location Based Services is gradually taking shape, offering not only navigational services, but also shopping advice, tourism, and localization of friends and family members. Developments in both Asia and the US (E-911) have positioned mobile phones with integrated positioning technology at the forefront of location based service provisioning in many markets.

While a number of end-user configurable services such as Wherify's Kid-Phone, Sprint's Family Locator, or jackMobile's track-your-kid already exist, these are still simple applications with only few configurable options (e.g., distance-based alarms). Once hundreds or even thousands of devices and objects can be located with various levels of precision and accuracy, both the use of simple web interfaces for end-users, as well as the underlying programming models for developers, will quickly become a bottleneck for devising and configuring complex applications and services.

Within the scope of the LOP project we thus explore the idea, design and implication of making location a first class programming construct. This entails the creation of models, language constructs, and supporting architectures that will allow programmers to engage in Location Oriented Programming, where location and its attributes (such as freshness, certainty, reliability, source, and expiration), but also location-based relationships (such as containment, nearness, or distance) and trajectory-based aspects (i.e., tracking) are easily assessed, accessed, and processed. We also try to address core issues of location based services, such as autonomy, reliability, availability, and of course security and privacy.

See also the following related items:

• Mobile Interaction (topic)

Selected Publications

See the Publications of the Distributed Systems Group page for a full listing of our publications.

• Philipp Bolliger
  Redpin – Adaptive, Zero-Configuration Indoor Localization through User Collaboration.
  Proceedings of the First ACM International Workshop on Mobile Entity Localization and Tracking in GPS-less Environment Computing and Communication Systems. San Francisco, USA, September 2008
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  (Best Presentation Award)
  
  
• Christian Frank, Philipp Bolliger, Friedemann Mattern, Wolfgang Kellerer
  The Sensor Internet at Work: Locating Everyday Items Using Mobile Phones.
  Pervasive and Mobile Computing, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp. 421-447, June 2008
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)
  
  
• Benedikt Ostermaier, Philipp Bolliger
  Creating Location-based Services by utilising a Web of Places.
  2nd International Workshop on SensorWebs, Databases and Mining in Networked Sensing Systems (SWDMNSS) at SAINT 2008. Turku, Finland, June 2008
  Abstract, BibTeX, Paper (.pdf)